Some people think that malakos referred to the passive partner in a sexual relationship because in Greek and Roman society "taking the woman's position" during sex was seen as a sign of weakness and submission.1 However, it must be stressed that malakos never referred exclusively to a man who takes the "passive role" in a homosexual relationship in any ancient Greek writings. Grecian and Roman society did not strictly view gay men as "effeminate," unless they possessed feminine characteristics, which were regarded as weak, gentle, or cowardly.2 In fact, many ancient Greek writers refer to heterosexual men as "effeminate."3

1"In classical Athens, then, sexual partners came in two different kinds – not male and female but active and passive, dominant and submissive. The relevant features of a sexual object were not so much determined by a physical typology of genders as by the social articulation of power. That is why the current fashionable distinction between homosexuality and heterosexuality had no meaning for the classical Athenians: There were not, so far as they knew, two different kinds of 'sexuality,' to differently structured psychosexual state or modes of affection orientation, but a single form of sexual experience, which all free adult males shared – making due allowance for variations in individual taste, as one might make for individual palates" (Halperin, 1989, p. 50-51); "This is certainly not to imply that there were no sexual prejudices or taboos in Roman society but simply that none was directly related to homosexual relations as a class. A very strong bias appears to have existed against passive sexual behavior on the part of an adult male citizen. Noncitizen adults (e.g., foreigners, slaves) could engage in such behavior without loss of status, as could Roman youths, provided the relationship was voluntary and non-mercenary. Such persons might in fact considerably improve their position in life through liaisons of this type. But if an adult citizen openly indulged in such behavior, he was viewed with scorn" (Boswell, 1980, p. 74). Return

2Boswell, 1980, p. 339, "(G)ender-related concepts of decorum and behavior work were, as in most cultures, dependent on cultural and temporal variables. New styles of clothing wear derogated as 'effeminate,' as were habits of grooming which were novel or extravagant. Such charges were leveled at obviously heterosexual persons as well as apparently gay ones, and it is clear that the stigma had no relation to sexual preference" (Boswell, 1980, p. 76). Return

3The King James Version of the Bible was written approximately in 1611 and updated in 1769 with the authorized Oxford edition. However, the term "homosexuality" entered into the English language in 1892, according to the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary (2012). Return